O.C. grand jury supports reforms to oust elected county officials for misconduct

In the wake of the June primary, an Orange County grand jury report proposed charter reforms that would make it easier for elected county officials to be removed from office for misconduct.

Both O.C. Assessor Claude Parrish and Treasurer-Tax Collector Shari Freidenrich handily won reelection earlier this month, earning more than 70% of the vote in their respective races.

But Parrish and Freidenrich have also been subject of H.R. investigations in recent years with at least some county supervisors unaware of the findings until reporters requested the files.

The pair of county officials are the focus of the “Unbalanced Authority: Oversight and Accountability in Orange County Government” grand jury report released on June 12.

Where it concerns elected officials like Parrish and Freidenrich, the report claims that the Orange County Board of Supervisors largely have their hands tied by the state’s constitution and state law.

Still, the grand jury suggests that county charter reforms could give supervisors the power to remove troublesome officials by a supermajority vote on the five-member board.

The report also recommends consolidating the assessor and clerk-recorder’s office to improve oversight while making the treasurer an appointed position in the future.

Parrish faced H.R. investigation

Jurors interviewed county staffers and requested public records and claim issues persist at the assessor’s office after an H.R. investigation in 2023 sustained allegations that Parrish violated gender discrimination and retaliation policies while harassing a subordinate employee with a disability.

“Testimony obtained during the investigation consistently characterized the office as lacking in stable executive leadership,” the report claimed. “Witness accounts describing inconsistent decision-making and repeated lapses in judgment raise doubts about the Assessor’s ability to manage the operational and administrative responsibilities of a complex public agency.”

Jurors described Parrish’s frequent absence from the office as an “open secret,” in the report and blamed his refusal to modernize operations for lagging behind on technological updates.

Parrish rejects both reforms where it concerns his seat and office.

“With respect to the removal of an elected county official, the power is vested in the voters as part of a recall,” he said. “The assessor and clerk-recorder office duties are also significantly different. Combining these offices will not provide any cost savings or efficiency.”

The assessor and treasurer-tax collector are described in the report as the “two most financially significant elected offices in the county.” The assessor’s office spans 250 employees and manages the evaluation of $850 billion in taxable properties.

The treasurer oversees tax collection and counts a staff of 70 employees. Freidenrich’s office managed a $17-billion investment pool until late 2024 when supervisors stripped her of that authority.

Mark Geragos, an attorney for Freidenrich, criticized the grand jury report.

“The voters overwhelmingly rejected the notion that Freidenrich should be removed,” he said. “At the same time, Orange County is the only county in the state to have moved the financial fiduciary duties from the treasurer. We’ve seen this movie before when Orange County last went bankrupt.”

‘Persistant fear’ in Freidenrich’s office

An internal investigation in 2022 substantiated allegations that Freidenrich threw office keys at another employee out of anger, an incident it noted as a likely violation of workplace violence policies.

The grand jury report cited a recent Orange County Employees Assn. survey of treasurer-tax collector staff along with its own independent interviews to show a culture of “persistent fear, distrust and low morale” permeates the department after the investigation.

In the lead up to the June primary, Freidenrich tried to fire assistant treasurer-tax collector Dana Schultz, who filed paperwork to run against her. Freidenrich later cruised to an easy victory over Schultz at the ballot.

Jodi Balma, a political science professor at Fullerton College, agreed with the report that most county official races are powered by name recognition and incumbency.

“The electorate is so ill-informed, uninformed and misinformed that I wished the report had come out before the election,” she said. “I would have loved for it to have been part of the public discourse. If the report had come out before filing deadline — that would have been ideal.”

Should the assessor and treasurer positions continue to be elected without the oversight reforms proposed, Balma offered another idea.

“State law moved the sheriff and district attorney’s terms to presidential election cycles, but left all the other county offices behind,” she said. “At the very least, Orange County and all other counties need to move the rest of their offices to the same election cycle as the sheriff and district attorney races.”

County Supervisor Don Wagner pushed back on the grand jury’s suggestion that a supermajority of the board could oust an elected official.

“I’m not sure you want to give that sort of additional power to supervisors,” Wagner said. “If it’s misconduct that, God forbids, rises to the level of ex-supervisor Andrew Do, law enforcement can step in. If it’s something short of that, there’s always a recall.”